Someone should tell the state Republican establishment that the rats are supposed to jump off the sinking ship, not hop on deck.

Last week the state Office of Legislative Services announced that New Jersey's ship of state is sinking faster than even the most pessimistic prognosticators had predicted. Tax collections in April, the month when income taxes are due, were off by so much that the Corzine administration must come up with a quick $1.2 billion by the end of fiscal 2009.

That's a problem. Fiscal 2009 ends on June 30. It's hard to imagine coming up with that much in cost cuts or new revenue between now and then.

The news led the Trenton Republicans to fire off a set of salvos against the administration. "Governor Corzine repeatedly rejected calls by Republicans over the last two years to build up a surplus that would cushion the state from an economic downturn," said one missive from the minority in the Senate.

It would indeed have been nice for the administration to set aside some money for a rainy day. But a lot of that rain is falling from clouds seeded by the Republicans back when they were in power. In the Whitman years the GOP borrowed more than $11 billion without voter approval for pension bonds and for a school-construction program that was poorly set up by the Republicans only to be poorly managed by subsequent Democratic administrations. And don't forget that 9 percent hike in public-employee pensions passed in the waning days of Republican rule. Those bills are now coming due.

Of course, the Democrats were complicit in these and later spending excesses that benefited inside-Trenton interests much more than they benefited the taxpayers. The rat population in this ship's hold is thoroughly bipartisan. Meanwhile up in the captain's cabin, Corzine looks out over a sea of red ink that stretches as far as the eye can see -- yet still talks of expanding government services.

On the Republican side, gubernatorial nominee Chris Christie held a press conference in the Statehouse Thursday during which he lambasted Corzine for permitting this deficit to develop. "We should not be in a $1.2 billion hole with 56 days to go," said Christie.

Just after lamenting the administration's failure to anticipate that drop in income-tax revenues, Christie proposed to cut those revenues even further. If elected, he said, he will provide an income tax of big but unspecified size. Meanwhile he will also provide big but unspecified property-tax rebates, he said.

This is impossible. About half of the current budget is already dedicated to property-tax relief, including the entire income tax. Further reducing that flow of money will mean increases in New Jersey's property taxes, already the highest in the nation.

Granted, this is an election year and we can't expect straight talk from the leaders of either party. But the harsh reality is this: The only way to balance this year's budget, as required by the constitution, will be to delay a certain amount of expenditures until July 1, when they will go into next year's budget. And that in turn means the pressure to cut the budget for fiscal 2010 is even more intense than it was.

Instead of squabbling over the latest bad news, the leaders should be giving us even more bad news. Each party should present a list of very specific budget cuts and stand by them - before the election. And before the ship sinks.